The J&K High Court has ordered the formation of special teams of lawyers to submit status reports of the major road projects in the Kashmir Valley.
The move follows a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a civil society group to highlight the condition of roads in the State.
A division bench comprising Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice Tashi Rabstan on Tuesday empowered these teams of lawyers to “oversee and inspect the condition of various roads in the Valley.”
Commuters hit
“The court will be informed properly through these teams,” the court observed while hearing a PIL filed by the civil society, Tral, in south Kashmir.
The PIL highlighted the inconvenience caused to commuters on a daily basis on the national highway in south Kashmir.
A team of three lawyers, G.N. Sofi, Ashiq Hussain and Rizwan Bhat, will monitor both the Srinagar-Banihal and the Srinagar-Baramulla stretches.
“One officer from each RAMKY Infrastructure and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) will report to the court by the next date along with photographs (of the stretches),” the division bench held.
Two lawyers, Bhat Fayaz and Asif Ali, have been empowered to “inspect the Srinagar to Sonamarg upgradation being carried out by the NHAI.”
As for the Bandipora-Sumbal road, which has been taken up by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), Bhat Fayaz and N A Malik will oversee the work. Similarly, the Srinagar-Sopore route will be supervised by lawyers B.A. Zargar and Shafkat Nazir.
Four-lane highway
The court move comes as the 67-km four-lane of the Srinagar-Banihal highway, commissioned by the NHAI to RAMKY in 2011, failed to meet the deadlines set for year 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The J&K’s Inspector General of Police, Traffic, attributed “the traffic mess to the dilapidated roads” in its report submitted to the court.
